• Preview: RTÉ Choice Music Prize, Irish Album of the Year 2017

    February 4, 2018 - By 

    Since the inception of The Choice Music Prize – now in partnership with national broadcaster RTÉ – in 2005, the list of victors has been exceptionally varied making it close to impossible to cast a definitive answer on who will claim the bountiful cash prize and honour of releasing the best Irish album of the year. Over the last thirteen years, artists as diverse as Julie Feeney to Rusangano Family and The Gloaming to Villagers have won for their outstanding musical output. On paper, the ten albums nominated for 2017 can be broken down into as the following; seven hours…

  • Belle & Sebastian – How to Solve Our Human Problems Pt. 2

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    In 1996, Belle & Sebastian recorded, mixed and released two albums; Tigermilk in June and If You’re Feeling Sinister in November. Both highly acclaimed releases from the band which remain as firm favourites amongst their fans, they were both made within the confines of a week long period. On each occasion, Stuart Murdoch came to the studio with a notebook full of lyrics inspired by the lives of ordinary people and introduced us to an array of characters in different scenarios. Along the way, we acquire intimate details about their circumstances, reflecting the dreary backdrop of the time and town…

  • Worlds Apart: An Interview with Brigid Mae Power

    January 17, 2018 - By 

    In the winter of 2017, Irish multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power shared the first single from her forthcoming second album, The Two Worlds, scheduled for release this February. ‘Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely)’ effortlessly encapsulated the tone of that season with its prevailing darkness. This is a soundscape that we are invited to explore in her new material. Through her lyrics and haunting arrangements, Power examines the duality that is ever present in the artist both creatively and personally. Words by Zara Hedderman You released your self-titled debut in 2016. How was it returning to an empty notebook after promoting and touring…

  • Festival Preview: Quarter Block Party 2018

    January 15, 2018 - By 

    Returning to the centre of Cork city for its fourth year isQuarter Block Party, a music and arts festival fast establishing its position as one of the finest weekends in the cultural calendar. Presented by Makeshift Ensemble and the Southern Hospitality Board, a myriad of events are due to provide some much-needed upliftment following the post-Christmas tedium over the first weekend of February (Friday 2nd to Sunday the 4th). Psych-pop experimentalists O Emperor (below) have been quiet since the release of their Lizard EP which came out back in 2015 and their return provides an occasion for the band to debut…

  • Angel Olsen – Phases

    November 13, 2017 - By 

    Last year Angel Olsen released My Woman, an evocative record which exposed experiences of vulnerability that would later become lyrics brimming with defiance: “I dare you to understand what makes me a woman”, and so forth. Typically then, listening to an Angel Olsen song incurs a fleeting foreboding feeling. It’s a feeling akin to glancing through a diary that you shouldn’t be sifting through but it’s there in front of you, waiting to be consumed and picked apart. It’s human nature to be curious, especially in the context of dissecting lyrics that are forthright in their meaning. It can be…

  • A. Savage – Thawing Dawn

    November 5, 2017 - By 

    Andrew Savage has been ensconced in the music scene since his teenage years growing up in Denton, Texas. He played in bands, organised small-scale guerilla marketing campaigns – promotional bathroom band graffiti – and self-released lo-fi tapes until firmly establishing his position within the independent DIY realm with his band Parquet Courts following their debut in 2011. Their reputation has grown steadily and they have seamlessly become an act that figures into the same conversations that laud the likes of Ought and Black Lips. In a relatively short space of time they have become stalwarts of a scene of bands…

  • Album Review: King Krule – The Ooz

    October 24, 2017 - By 

    Sunday evenings are traditionally reserved for reclining in a state of hazed relaxation for as long as physically possible. A sleepy air descends upon the climatic hours of the weekend, you grasp tightly onto the feeling of not having to fulfil any commitments. And yet there is, always lingering in the background, a sense of agitation. The calm is impeded by a menacing presence, the knowledge of something inevitable and an uncertainty of what has happened or will reveal itself in due course. The Ooz has all the sonic hallmarks of a Sunday night: Calming, alluring, hypnotic, but also audacious,…

  • Rostam – Half-Light

    September 28, 2017 - By 

    In a recent interview to promote his debut solo album, Rostam Batmanglij told The New Yorker: “Many of the songs on Half-Light feel as though they could have become Vampire Weekend songs except that they go somewhere else entirely. My music is about identity. This album is about identity.” To a certain degree he wasn’t wrong. The majority of his solo endeavour could easily find a home on one of Vampire Weekend’s three albums. With regard to the musical identity presented in this record one can extensively hear sonic traits honed throughout his tenure with his former band. Naturally, similarities between…

  • Zola Jesus – Okovi

    September 15, 2017 - By 

    To aid in writing and recording her fifth album, Nika Roza Danilova – better known as Zola Jesus –returned to the sparse landscape of her childhood in Wisconsin. In turn, the woodland environment itself contributed greatly to the inception Okovi and the soundscapes that pervade it. As a body of work, Okovi is unsettling, unpredictable and conjures the illusion of being lost in uncharted terrain populated by deafening drum machines, sinister synths and, of course, her incredibly powerful vocals. It has been three years since Zola Jesus released new material. The interim facilitated a brief period of collaborating with Dean Hurley – David Lynch’s primary sound designer who recently shared a…

  • Arcade Fire – Everything Now

    August 4, 2017 - By 

    The most troubling time in anyone’s life is adolescence. And often, insecurities born during this time are masked by either acts of defiance or retreat as a way of coming to terms with the transitional phase. It is important then to note that Arcade Fire released their debut, Funeral, 13 years ago. Prior to the release of Everything Now, the fifth studio album from the Canadian band, they engaged in several viral marketing campaigns, each news story or act as incredulous as the last, all garnering substantial media coverage. It began with a fake Twitter profile presented under the guise of…